The Other Issues (Outside of Ebola and ISIS)

Posted on October 17, 2014

As previously mentioned, two issues dominate the headlines: Ebola and ISIS.

But they aren’t the only issues that are driving this election.

The two most under-rated issues, in my humble opinion, are the rising costs of Obamacare and Michelle Obama’s assault on school lunches.

Every small employer right now is confronting a huge challenge for next year: How to break it to their employees that they are going to be paying a lot more for their health care insurance.

For those who run businesses, that means cutting real-time pay to good employees or giving them a much smaller raise than they would otherwise have.

Premiums are going up between 15 to 30 percent. In previous years, such an increase would be blamed on insurance companies. This year, it means blaming the President.

It’s not the issue that it once was, because the President has spectacularly mishandled Ebola, but rising health care premiums are on the back of the mind of working Americans.

Two years ago, Michelle Obama was a big asset on the campaign trail. She could mitigate the vitriol people felt towards her husband as she turned out the vote.

These days, when parents think about the First Lady, it’s usually in the context not of politics, but of school lunches. Their children are complaining bitterly about the crap they are forced to eat at school, and they blame Mrs. Obama.

Bitching about school lunches is a rite of passage in America. But today, instead of blaming the school itself, kids and parents now blame the President and his wife.

In 2006, the Middle Class felt squeezed by a slowing economy, the Iraq War seemed to be a disaster and after Katrina, we looked like a nation of incompetent boobs led by a bunch of morons.

And Republicans got whacked pretty hard as a result.

In 2014, Ebola and ISIS have caused considerable anxiety about personal safety and about the President’s competence.

But that anxiety and anger has been stoked by the rising costs associated with Obamacare and the crappy food associated with Michelle Obama.